September 27th

With the gale force wind still blowing and moving to a more northerly direction we had another seawatch from the Towers. I stayed there from 0630 to 0930 and had a more varied selection of birds than the last few days with most of them flying west. In the three hours I was there we counted 29 Wigeon, 1 Mediterranean Gull E, 3 Tufted Duck, 29 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 6 Great Skuas, 2 large auks, 1 Razorbill, 3 Arctic Skuas, 1 adult Pomarine Skua flying E (189th), 2 Lapwings, 44 Gannets, 73 Dunlin, 1 Pintail, 5 Teal, 94 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 1 Snipe, 2 Little Gulls, adult and juvenile, 2 Common Scoter, 5 Grey Plovers, 3 Sandwich Terns, 1 Golden Plover and 21 Knot.

After I left Matt remained at the Towers for another hour and added 17 Arctic Skuas, 1 juvenile Pomarine Skua, 41 Wigeon, 1 juvenile Long-tailed Skua, 1 Knot, 183 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 1 Grey Phalarope (190th), 1 adult Little Gull, 2 Curlew, 4 Dunlin, 2 Golden Plovers, 3 Pintail and 8 Gannets.

Derek Smith then stayed until 1245 and added 87 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 14 Common Scoter, 5 Pintail, 2 Little Gulls, 7 Arctic Skuas, (2W, 5E), 1 Great Skua E, 4 Sandwich Terns, 13 Grey Plover, 3 Golden Plover, 18 Dunlin and 4 Snipe.

At Minnis Bay Tony Swandale recorded a Leach's Petrel flying E (191st).

At about 1245, I received a call from Richard Collins to say that the Grey Phalarope had settled on the sea just west of the car park so we drove down to Reculver and found it still performing well in horrible conditions.

Grey Phalarope in the rain and gale force wind